Exodus6chapter 6

Exodus 6:10-11

The demand put to Pharaoh changes at this point. At 3:18 and again at 5:3 the request was a three days road into the wilderness to sacrifice, and now it is that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. Albert Barnes marks the shift, since a three days road could have been kept inside Egypt's own borders and a departure from the land cannot.

The charge to Moses is renewed after the setback of chapter 5. The demand is now full departure from Pharaoh's land, where 3:18 asked for three days in the wilderness. Albert Barnes notes this change, since the earlier request might have been met within the borders of Egypt.

Moses argues from the smaller case to the larger, that if his own people will not hear him the king of Egypt certainly will not. The objection is the one he raised at 4:10 when he called himself slow of speech and of a slow tongue, and Adam Clarke takes uncircumcised lips as an impediment in speech rather than a figure of speech. The same figure is used of the heart at Leviticus 26:41, of the ear at Jeremiah 6:10, and of both together by Stephen at Acts 7:51.

The answer to the objection is a charge rather than a reply, and it is laid on the two brothers together and aimed at Israel and Pharaoh alike. Albert Barnes marks this verse as the opening of a new section, and the genealogy that follows holds up the narrative until verse 27. John Wesley reads the charge as authority that settles the objections without further argument.

Exodus 6:14-15

The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: The roll begins in birth order with Reuben and Simeon, then stops at Levi and goes no further, because its business is to place Moses and Aaron rather than to list the tribes. Reuben is named the firstborn of Israel and the record moves straight past him, which is what Genesis had already done at 49:3 and 49:4. Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman is kept in the list exactly as Genesis 46:10 had him, with nothing added and nothing removed.

the son of a Canaanite woman: The verse records the six sons of Simeon, Jacob's second son, matching the list in Genesis 46:10. Shaul is marked as the son of a Canaanite woman, a detail the record keeps plainly. John Wesley, on verse 14, explains that Reuben and Simeon are listed to reach Levi, the tribe of Moses and Aaron and of all the priests.

Exodus 6:16-19

Gershon, Kohath and Merari become the three carrying divisions of the tabernacle at Numbers 3 and Numbers 4, so this list is also the roster of who will move the tent. Ages are recorded for Levi at a hundred and thirty seven years and for Kohath at a hundred and thirty three, and for nobody else in the chapter except Amram. John Gill notes that the same figure for Levi appears in the ancient chronographer Demetrius, quoted through Alexander Polyhistor in Eusebius.

The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimei: The verse names the two sons of Gershon, the first son of Levi. Their clans later form the Gershonite division of the Levites, which Numbers 3 puts in charge of the tabernacle's coverings and curtains. John Gill, on verse 16, sets Gershon first by order of birth among the sons of Levi.

Kohath lived 133 years: Kohath is the line that leads to Moses and Aaron, through his son Amram. The verse names his four sons and gives his age at death. From his descendants came the priests and the Levites who carried the holy things. John Gill notes that the ancient historian Polyhistor, citing Demetrius, gives Kohath the same age.

The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi: The verse completes the three branches of Levi with the two sons of Merari and closes the list of Levite clans. The Merarites later carried the frames, crossbars and posts of the tabernacle, as Numbers 3 records. John Gill, on verse 16, sets Merari third in order of birth among the sons of Levi.

Levi at verse 16, Kohath at verse 18, Amram here and Moses in this same verse make exactly four generations, which is what Genesis 15:16 said would pass before Abraham's seed came back to Canaan. The text calls Jochebed the sister of Amram's father, a marriage that Leviticus 18:12 later forbids. John Wesley and Adam Clarke read the Hebrew dodah broadly as kinswoman, while others take the word at face value and observe that the law had not yet been given. Numbers 26:59 says plainly that Jochebed was born to Levi in Egypt.

Exodus 6:21-22

Korah is entered in the family record of Moses and Aaron with no comment attached, and Numbers 16 tells what he did with the standing this line gave him. Adam Clarke reads the inclusion as a mark of the impartiality of the man writing. Mishael and Elzaphan, named in the next verse, are the two who carry the bodies of Nadab and Abihu out of the camp at Leviticus 10:4.

The sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan: Uzziel was the youngest son of Kohath and so an uncle of Moses and Aaron. The verse names his three sons. Two of them appear again in Leviticus 10:4, where Moses calls Mishael and Elzaphan to carry out the bodies of Nadab and Abihu, as John Gill notes.

Aaron marries into Judah. Elisheba is the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Nahshon, who stands as prince of Judah at Numbers 2:3 and sits in the line to David and to Christ at Ruth 4:20 and Matthew 1:4. Two of the four sons listed here, Nadab and Abihu, die before the Lord at Leviticus 10:2, and the priesthood runs on through Eleazar and Ithamar.

Exodus 6:24-25

Korah's sons are named here, and Numbers 26:11 says the children of Korah did not die when the earth opened on their father. Eleven psalms carry their name in the title, at Psalms 42, 44 to 49, 84, 85, 87 and 88, so the house that rebelled against the priesthood ends up leading the singing. Phinehas, named at the close of verse 25, is the grandson of Aaron who acts at Numbers 25:7 to 13 and receives the covenant of an everlasting priesthood.

and she bore him Phinehas: The verse carries the priestly line one generation further, from Aaron to Eleazar to Phinehas. Phinehas later receives a covenant of lasting priesthood for his zeal in Numbers 25. The verse then closes the list of Levite family heads. Adam Clarke, on verse 23, notes that Eleazar succeeded Aaron as high priest.

Exodus 6:26-27

The two verses name the pair in both orders, Aaron first here and Moses first at the end of verse 27, and the genealogy closes by pointing at two men rather than at a tribe. According to their armies uses tsaba, a word for troops drawn up in order, and it returns for the people who march out at 12:41 and 12:51. Adam Clarke connects the word to the divine title Lord of hosts.

Moses and Aaron were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh: The verse ties the genealogy back to the story. These two men, whose line has just been traced from Levi, are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh. Adam Clarke, on verse 26, quotes Dodd on the plain manner in which Moses lists his relatives, including those later punished.

Exodus 6:28-30

The narrative picks up where verse 13 left it, and Moses raises the same objection in the same words he had used at verse 12. Adam Clarke held that the chapter should have ended at verse 27, since verse 30 runs straight into the answer given at 7:1. The book has now recorded his objections at 3:11, 4:1, 4:10, 4:13, verse 12 and here, and the plagues begin with the argument still open.

The LORD restates His name and His charge in brief. The words I am the LORD ground the command, and Moses must pass on everything he is told. Adam Clarke, on verse 14, reads the passage from verse 28 onward as a recapitulation of what was spoken in the earlier chapters.

Moses repeats the objection of verse 12 that he is unskilled in speech. The Hebrew speaks of uncircumcised lips, lips unfit for their task. The LORD's answer follows in 7:1, where Aaron is appointed to speak for him. Adam Clarke, on verse 12, takes the phrase as a hindrance in ready speech, perhaps from forty years away from the Egyptian tongue.